Bhutan goes beyond the hour

This year, WWF Bhutan Program joined hands with Clean Bhutan, Royal Thimphu College, Department of Forest and Park Services, the National Environment Commission and the Thimphu Thromde (municipality) to observe the Global Earth Hour.

On 29th March, over 400 volunteers joined WWF on a campaign to clean up a 2.5 km stretch of the Thimphu river. Within three hours of the cleaning campaign, over 3.5 metric tonnes of waste was collected.

The Earth Hour eve started off with pledges from the Minister of Agriculture and Forests, Secretary and Special Advisor to the National Environment Commission and the Thimphu Thrompon (Mayor).

Yeshey Dorji, the Minister of Agriculture and Forests said, “Earth Hour serves as a timely reminder to the global community that environmental challenges are putting our future at risk. It is a time for us to look these challenges in the eye and realise the seriousness of their implications.”

This set the mood for the rest of the evening where the crowd lit up candles and signed pledges to make their own individual contributions in leading a conservation-friendly lifestyle.

To celebrate the spirit of the event and of people coming together collectively to “Use Their Power” a concert featuring popular Bhutanese artists followed.

It was not only in Thimphu that the campaign was organized. Across the country, representatives of the National Environment Commission organized their own campaign with support from WWF Bhutan Program.

On the other hand, in a true spirit of the Earth Hour campaign, there also were independent programs organized by other individuals and organizations to mark the hour. Earth Hour is now, not just a WWF initiative but a campaign the is engrained in the minds and hearts of every conservationist.

Around 400 volunteers joined a cleaning campaign organized in the early hours leading up to the Earth Hour